Myth:“Speed doesn’t cause accidents. There are more
important contributing factors to crashes like drunkenness,
tiredness or just plain boredom at driving slowly.”

Fact: Speeding is not only unlawful but irresponsible
and threatens other motorists and road users who want to travel
safely. Government advice is that drivers need to take regular
breaks to avoid tiredness, and drink-driving is illegal and
dangerous. Many drivers don’t realise that speed is responsible
for more deaths than drink-driving.

In the year 2002, 59 per cent of drivers exceeded the 30mph
speed limit in urban areas, down from 65 per cent in 2001. In
2002, 3431 people lost their lives on our roads: a third of
these fatal crashes were due to excessive speed and 179 of the
dead were children. The Association of Chief Police Officers
says that speed is the most important factor in road crashes,
more so than even drink or drug driving.

One-way traffic in Pound Lane

During school going in and coming out times (approx 08:30 to 08:50 and 15:30 to 15:50), Pound Lane is designated a voluntary one-way street to avoid congestion and danger to the children. During these times, traffic is encouraged to flow only from Church Street towards Cooks Mead in a westerly / north-westerly direction.

Instead of parking directly outside school, parents can avoid congestion and park in the Village Hall car park, they can walk across the road and up the steps to pick up their child. If you really must park outside school, please do not park in the the bus bay where the taxis and minibuses pick up.

Road Safety Forum

There is a forum in the Uplyme Debate discussing issues related to Road safety in the village. Click here to read the views of the members and please do join in if you have something to say on the subject.

"Clinically Insane" - Clarkson

Many people are beginning to come around to the view that it is not environmentally acceptable to use large four-wheel drive vehicles for short trips in the urban environment.

A pressure group called the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s puts the case very strongly on their website.

Even self-proclaimed petrolhead Jeremy Clarkson, co-presenter of BBC's Top Gear said "I do have to say that the drivers of these things in cities must be clinically insane."

Sponsorship

This page is sponsored by Contact Learn of Yawl. In less
than 24months, two cars have left the road and crashed
through garden walls in
Yawl,
a narrow, bendy, 30 MPH zone where cars regularly exceed 40
MPH.

Slow Down !

There is a campaign in the village to try to persuade the local authority that traffic calmingmeasures are necessary.

The current 'village gate' system from the Talbot Arms to Tappers Knapp has had some effect in reducing speeds in the centre of the village.

However, some residents have concerns about the placing of the restriction near to the top of Tappers Knapp since vehicles approaching from the Lyme Regis direction may not realise that vehicles can emerge from Tappers Knapp turning left into the village gate.

Myth: “Safety cameras don’t save lives. Quite the
opposite: when motorists see the cameras they suddenly brake
hard, which is dangerous.”

Fact: Motorists should be driving within the speed
limits so there is no need to brake hard at safety cameras if
the law is being observed. Skilled drivers do not drive above
the limit: they know the law and the consequences of car
crashes. About half the people hit by a vehicle travelling at
30mph will die; hit at 40mph, nine out of ten will die.

Speed limits are intended to provide a safe road environment
for all road-users including other motorists. Latest Government
figures from the 24 safety camera areas operating in 2002-03
show that cameras reduced the number of people killed or
seriously injured by 40 per cent. This equates to 105 fewer
deaths and over 750 fewer people seriously injured across these
areas.

Excessive
or inappropriate speed is a major cause of road
crashes. A 1mph increase in average speed has been
shown to result in an average 5 per cent increase in
crashes. Even if one takes the very conservative view
that a third of crashes are caused by speed, this
still means that in 2002 at least 1140 people were
killed and 11,990 people were seriously injured in
road crashes where speed was a contributory factor.
Proportionally, this would translate into 275
pedestrian deaths, of which 35 were children, and 46
cyclist deaths in 2001 in crashes involving speed.
Lower speeds reduce both the frequency of collisions
and their severity. Hull City Council’s widespread
20mph zones have resulted in a 38.5 per cent reduction
in child casualties, clearly showing a very strong
link between speed reduction and casualty reduction.
Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) says that a
reduction of 2mph in the average speed across the road
network would save 200 lives a year.

More fuel is burnt at higher
speeds, resulting in more air pollution and impacting
on health. Driving at 50mph instead of 70mph can
reduce fuel consumption by 30 per cent. As speed
increases above 30mph it results in an increase in
carbon dioxide emissions. The Government is committed
to reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent of
1990 levels by 2010, and the Royal Commission on
Environmental Pollution recommends a 60 per cent cut
in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. Emissions from
transport are currently the fastest growing source of
greenhouse gases in the UK. Road traffic is the single
largest source of air pollution. As many as 24,100
deaths each year are exacerbated by air pollution.

Driving fast creates more traffic
noise. Road traffic is the most important source of
noise nuisance and tyre noise increases with speed.
Road traffic noise is known to cause stress, poor
sleep and mild psychiatric illness.

Fast moving traffic severs
communities. Busy roads can divide local communities,
literally cutting them in half. Children and elderly
people are especially affected. The faster the traffic
is moving, the harder it is to cross the road,
increasing the risk to the pedestrian. Many elderly
and disabled people literally do not have the mobility
to cross roads fast enough between breaks in traffic
and so are cut off. CPRE research has shown that 83
per cent of authorities have no comprehensive strategy
to introduce 30mph speed limits in villages. Many
village high streets and through roads still have 40
or 60mph speed limits. With these kinds of speeds it
is virtually impossible to cross the road without
controlled crossing.

High traffic speeds suppress
cycling and walking. A MORI poll found that 44 per
cent of people said they would cycle more if roads
were safer and 26 per cent would travel less by car if
the conditions for walking locally were better. High
traffic speed not only intimidates cyclists and
pedestrians, but the higher the speed, the greater the
severity of injury on impact. If a cyclist or
pedestrian is hit by a vehicle travelling at 40mph,
they only have a 15 per cent chance of survival; if
hit at 20mph they have a 95 per cent chance of
survival. Cyclists’ and pedestrians’ fears about speed
and road safety are based on a reality that Britain
has one of the proportionally worst track records for
cyclist and pedestrian fatality levels in Europe.

Speeding traffic reduces the
mobility of children. Children want to be able to play
in the areas near to where they live, to walk or cycle
to school, to be able to walk round to their friend’s
house, but parents’ fears about speeding traffic and
road safety prevent children being independently
mobile. Parents’ fears are not irrational: in Britain
in 2002 the police reported 2800 serious child
pedestrian casualties. Research has shown that fear of
traffic, and of speeding traffic in particular, leads
parents to drive their children to school. In the past
20 years car journeys to school have doubled and
studies have shown that children’s free time is
becoming increasingly sedentary. These low levels of
activity (and poor diets) are leading to rising rates
of obesity in British children with the associated
risk of coronary heart disease in later life.
Children’s independent mobility is important for
health, social development and forming self-reliance.

Speeding traffic and rat-running
through residential areas reduces quality of life and
inhibits a sense of community. Many of our streets now
feel like people-free zones. People walk 20 per cent
less and cycle 25 per cent less than 20 years ago,
while playing in the street, sitting and chatting to
neighbours and other social activities have clearly
also decreased. Less street activity means neighbours
are less likely to know each other, reducing the
overall sense of community and all the benefits of
social support. Fear of crime increases as street
activity falls.

Speeding road traffic
disproportionately affects people in deprived
communities. The Social Exclusion Unit’s interim
report Transport and Social Exclusion stated that
deprived communities are more affected by pedestrian
casualties and pollution caused by road traffic than
richer communities. Children from the 10 per cent most
deprived wards in England are three times more likely
to be hit by a car as a pedestrian.

Road crashes caused by speed cost
at least £5 billion a year. The DETR estimated the
value of preventing all road crashes and casualties at
£16.3 billion for 1999; preventing even a third of
these crashes would bring an economic cost benefit of
£5 billion a year. Hull City Council’s programme of
20mph zones has cost approximately £4 million to
implement. However, the savings in terms of injury
costs have been estimated at £40 million, meaning
Hull’s programme has paid for itself ten times over.

Slower speeds improve the capacity
of the road to carry more vehicles. The capacity of
the road network is increased when drivers approach
roundabouts and junctions slowly and smoothly
resulting in a more continuous flow of traffic and
greater through-flow. Reduced speeds also result in
reduced crashes. Road crashes are a major reason for
congestion, preventing traffic flowing. More research
is needed to determine the cost: benefit of slower
speeds in terms of journey time.